Make Believe Mailer 77: Not-Bandcamp Friday Special June 2023
You Should Always Be Buying Music!
I used to write a feature for OTAQUEST rounding up some Japanese recommendations for Bandcamp Friday. I’ve decided to keep doing that for the remaining installments of this campaign….and, also, when it isn’t happening, I guess! Bandcamp Friday is on summer vacation until August, but that’s no excuse not to follow new releases on the platform and shout-out works from Japan deserving your attention.
KASAI — J/P/N
Your mind starts wandering when you get out of the metropolis and enter…every other part of the country. Japanese experimental artists have draw a ton of inspiration from the sleepier parts of the archipelago in recent years, whether they find chaotic charm in the chain eateries and Hard-Offs of the suburbs (Foodman, woopheadclrms), peace and splendor in nature (Tenka, Yakushima Treasure), or tradition via all the reminders of the country’s history (Meitei, 99Letters).
Producer KASAI certainly falls under the last category, as new album J/P/N finds him melding minyo sounds with modern electronic touches to create a disorienting and hypnotic mutation of past and present. The Kyoto artist made it while also running a small farm, which I could only figure gets the imagination going. Summer festival shouts clip up against MIDI horns, while warbling voice get sliced up or thrown over helium-sucking synth lines. It’s not reverent to the past in the way Meitei’s earliest works were, but much closer to what Foodman does, reveling in individual sounds and imagining how they could be made more fun and funny. J/P/N sees the past played around with in the present, with an eagerness to see just how hypnotic the songs can get and how elastic the sounds can become. Get it here.
maya ongaku — Approach to Anima
Kikagaku Moyo might be no more, but their spirit carries on…specifically through the label they still operate. The newest release from Guruguru Brain is the debut full-length from Enoshima trio maya ongaku, a group offering a chiller interpretation of the hypnotic folk Kikagaku Moyo explored on a handful of their albums. We’re talking saxophone drifting in on the smoke-after-work smoothness of “Melting,” bells chiming lightly over acoustic plucks on the slowly unfolding reflection of “Water Dreams.” The three-piece make the most of space in their music, making the moments the songs add a new dramatic element all the more effective. Get it here.
Ruby Nakamura — at the Sanatorium House
The hook with at the Sanatorium House is that Susumu Hirasawa (P-Model, his own universe of releases) produced it. That becomes clears seconds in, when the title track dissolves into skittering bleeps. This three-song offering from Ruby Nakamura finds a balance between fidgety techno-pop celebration and modern flair, with the music made wonky by Hirasawa but Nakamura holding it all together thanks to her voice, capable of both unsettling sing-speak and dramatic higher-note reaches. The sound features Hirasawa’s touches for sure, but Nakamura finds space to make sure she holds equal ground with the celebrated artists. Get it here.
P-iPLE — Missing Idols
Much to my chagrin, I do not get out to live shows as much anymore, despite the fact I sing the praises of livehouses and clubs all the time. This is especially true of the random rock show, playing out at some basement spot along the Chuo line. I used to happily go to some random-ass station (or Koenji) to see a random-to-me selection of bands, but age / “responsibility” has made that much harder to do, even if a surprise night out used to be a highlight.
Missing Idols captures the feeling of stepping into a livehouse where the lighting is dim and the floors especially sticky. That’s largely because it’s the result of P-iPLE recording six songs from the wonderfully grungy depths of Koenji’s Ni-man Den-atsu, and the quartet captures the live energy you’d expect to find at that space. That spirit gives the EP extra oomph, and makes P-iPLE’s off-kilter rock hit all the better, both for my nostalgia and in the now. Get it here.
machìna — Action II
The latest in producer machìna’s dance-centric series continues to find the Tokyo-based producer exploring the icier side of her electronic sound. A delirious couple of tracks teasing release (“Whetstone”). Get it here.
Jacotanu — Power Play Jam
Las Vegas Golden Knights in seven, if anyone needs betting advice (please don’t follow that). Oh hey, here’s some high-energy dance tunes to groove to (errrr, body check your friends) courtesy of one of Spraybox’s founders. Get it here.
Lewo Chyba And Molly Lin — ARK013
Kyoto upstart dance label gives space to emerging Taiwanese producer Molly Lin, alongside regular Lewo Chyba, and this Pacific union results in two acid-soaked zone outs. Get it here.
novena — novena
First Japanese album I can remember sampling Ryan Seacrest’s radio show. Anyway, if you like the feeling of modern life being condensed into dizzying dance numbers that make you want to move but also lay down to avoid thinking about media saturation, here’s the release for you. Get it here.
AVV — “Noose”
Osaka producer AVV returns with a gossamer electronic track built around synth and vocal samples, with the beat less prominent and more of a heartbeat than propulsion force. Get it here.
Shine Of Ugly Jewel — “Akushu”
On the other end of the electronic spectrum — Shine Of Ugly Jewel returns with a dank and damp electronic number that feels like it’s crusted in mud. A constricting number with flashes of prettiness. Get it here.
Asa No Muretachi — Rekishi Wa Yoru Tsukareru
An experimental album constantly keeping you on your toes. The collective behind this tease punk-rock, emo, lounge, glitch and so much more over these sketches, never committing to one sound within a song but rather letting ideas play out and letting new riffs enter when needed. The key element is the vocals, sometimes straightforward and other times closer to incantation, which give form for all the noise to cover. Get it here.
Sachi Kobayshi — Melodies In The Garden
I went to Hokkaido recently, and spent one day roaming around a farm and then a very spacious park. I’m not someone typically good at stopping to appreciate the details of the natural world around me — I gravitate towards the sensory overload provided by cities, with Sapporo being much more my speed. Still, I gave into the world around me up north, aided by a decision to not look at my phone (bad place recently), and was absorbed in the small details of nature — the breeze, the bird songs, the flower smells. It was…absorbing.
Melodies In The Garden manages something similar, using nature samples (bugs, water, wind, etc.) to add depth to electronic and bell-centric compositions. Sachi Kobayashi rises above new age cliche thanks to how she layers all of these sonic elements, making for something revealing new details with every listen (her own voice drifting far in the back being a highlight). Get it here.
Machi — Ohayo
So much of the very-online breakcore crossing my ears is on the moody side — dark, depressive, samples of sad cartoon girls. This can work — and work very well — but it’s nice to come across these two songs from producer Machi that have a little more going for it. The title track borders on cartoon goofballery, speeding along on synth cheer and the occasional scream. “Darkest Before The Dawn” hints at something more melancholic, and for a bit it is…before it mutates into a death metal riff midway through, adding a little levity to the heaviness. Get it here.
Suzui Yubae — I Ga Kata Narekan Ga Tsugai Ka Aku No Ma Ni
If a Hakushi Hasegawa album was put in the microwave. Get it here.
Yunosuke — Tranquilizer
Elitetao — tao
I remain very salty about a recent wave of lazy reads on Vocaloid and the instruments history in Japan, focused on imagine oh-so-Gibson tech dystopia when the reality of what the software spurred could not be further from that. Partially, it mostly just inspired actual humans to become a new generation’s hit makers…but beyond that, the community around Vocaloid remains interested in seeing what is possible with synthetic singing. Here’s two good examples. Yunosuke’s latest album highlights the dance-pop pleasure the technology is capable of in the right hands, especially when the electronic trail of the programming is allowed to come through, melding perfectly with the synths around it. Elitetao offers a more experimental vision, using Vocaloid as a piece of a greater trip on tao. Synthesized singing only appears a few times, sometimes to helm a song (“Prayer for the primordial sound”) and other times to compliment human voices (“difference”). It’s a sonic texture complimenting the electronics, bells, singing and more around it, helping to craft an experimental pop album. In both cases, Vocaloid reveals versatility, and a continued source of inspiration. Get them here.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Ohayo is a nice little album, love those two songs! Thanks for the recommendation :)